Hetzer

Here are some images of a recently-completed Hetzer, or more correctly, a Jagdpanzer 38(t) (Sd.Kfz. 138/2). Ever since I started WW2 skirmish gaming, I have been slowly adding to my Heer force, which acts as a ready-built OPFOR for my Partisans, Soviets and South Africans. Given that using 28mm figures to game WW2 encounters is fairly new to the local gaming groups, the German force has seen plenty of action. This models was rushed into a game a month or so ago with just primer and a Dunkelgelb basecoat, and then withdrawn from service to get its camo finish.

I enjoyed the challenge of trying to replicate the early factory-finished scheme, which stands in contrast to the more common sprayed redbrown/olivegreen armour patterns.

The kit is from Warlord games: Its built pretty much out of the box: I only added the skirts, periscope, antenna and a one piece of baggage.

On the road to Monte Sole: a Bolt Action game

For the most recent Saturday meet of the Peninsula Wargames Group, I was involved in a 1500pt Bolt Action game, depicting a typical encounter between advanced elements of the SA 6th Armoured Division and a mixed force of Heer and SS defenders in the foothills of the Apennines in late 1944/early 1945.

I was looking forward to the game, as it was the first time I could field most of my South African force, the first time I had 1500pts under my command, and the first time both forces on the table had been drawn from the appropriate theatre selectors in the "Armies of..." books, as opposed to the abbreviated rulebook lists.

The official history of the Natal Mounted Rifles includes the full text of a 1944 report to divisional HQ, describing the methods of, and challenges facing, the dedicated reconnaissance unit as they picked their way carefully through successive layers of German defences. Based on the report, I put together a representative force: two reinforced platoons of 2 sections plus command each; medics; the ubiquitous FO; support weapons (2 mortars, 2 sniper teams, a Vickers MG, a PIAT and a towed QF 6-pdr) and transports (a 15-cwt truck and a Jeep). Armoured elements consisted of a Stuart Recce tank, a Sherman V 75mm and two Universal carriers in the recce role. With all selected as regulars, the list generated 21 order dice.

Facing the South Africans was a mix of Heer regulars and Waffen SS veterans (with the fanatic upgrade and all the relevant toys - a flamethrower, an MG42 in sustained fire mode, assault rifles, panzerfausts, panzerschreks etc) and supported by a PzKPfw IV, an Sd.Kfz 251/1 and a 120mm mortar team. Being expensive units, they generated 16 order dice.

Looking East. Objective top centre.

Looking West. Objective center of frame. In foreground is the village, through which the South African planned to attack.

The scenario was "Hold Until Relieved", with Germans set as the defenders and the objective set as a pair of ruined buildings on the crest of a hill, overlooking a village to the east and an road intersection to the west. A hedged-lined road ran parallel to the North (German) table edge.

The German commander deployed a Veteran SS section and an MMG into the objective. Assuming an armoured counter-attack, I deployed a platoon on the west flank of the table to act as a stopper group and firebase, and another platoon in the village, tasked to attack the objective through the village. The scenario dictates that all the attacker's armour is kept in reserve, and I specified that a Stuart recce and a Carrier would enter from the South (Allied table edge), the A/T gun from the West, and a Sherman and the second carrier from the East, supporting the main attack.

A PIAT team keeps an eye out for Gerry armour, while the rest of the platoon advances eastwards.

Bolt Action has its detractors, but once again the rule set produced a tense and enjoyable game, with lots of ebb and flow of fortune as the game unfolded.

Initial successes by the South Africans in pinning and reducing the defenders on the objective were matched by successful counter-battery fire by the German mortar team. The South African HQ called for an artillery strike to support their attack, and disaster struck - a miscalculation by the FO brought the strike down on his own troops in the village - killing the platoon HQ and pinning the advancing sections. Exploiting the opportunity, the German commander called in his SS Panzergrenadiers and Panzer IV from reserve, and the shellshocked and leaderless South Africans in the village collapsed in the face of determined German attacks.

Heer regulars call for support as they advance to contest the village...

... which arrives in the form of a Panzer IV Special.

Despite coming under small-arms fire, Heer mortarmen stick to their task, while their armour is pinned by accurate but ineffective a/t fire.

I attempted to reorganise the attack from the west flank, and the South Africans succeeded in briefly occupying one of the buildings on the objective, but the SS veterans immediately counter-attacked from the village to reclaim the hill. Despite sustained suppressive fire from the SA armour, and the loss of the Panzer IV to the Springbok 6-pdr, the fanatical Waffen SS held their ground and beat off all the South African assaults. With the game going into the 7th turn, the South Africans were lacking viable infantry units to contest, and the game was conceded. By my reckoning it had taken between 4 and 5 hours to play out.

Regimental HQ co-ordinating the ill-fated attack on the objective.

Too late... the Sprinkbok armour arrives after the primary infantry attack had already failed and the village had been lost.

An NMR Stuart Recce brews up, hit by a panzerscheck round at maximum range...

Peninsula Wargames Group Gamesday

The Cape-based Peninsula Wargames Group recently held their June monthly meet at the Chavonne Battery Museum at the V&A waterfront. The museum preserves the site of a 18th century coastal battery that was discovered during construction of an office building. Despite having sunken to below the current sea level, the battery was remarkably well preserved, and the archeological structures and the museum elements were sensitively integrated into the basement and ground floor of the modern building.

Its not the first time the museum has offered its facilities to the club - it was the venue for the PWG "big game" in December last year - a 3-day marathon recreation of Operation Market Garden (see pix here).

This time three games were played - a recreation of Quatre Bras in 28mm with something in the region of 30 battalions on each side (using the Black Powder rules and the Albion Triumphant supplements to guide scenario development), a 20mm WW2 Eastern Front encounter using the Rapid Fire 2.0 rules, and a 28mm skirmish (using the Bolt Action rules) based in Italy 1944/5 between German defenders and recce elements of the South African 6th Armoured Division.

Additional images can be found in the PWG Gaming Gallery.

Its a great venue for playing wargames  "in the public eye" - plenty of space, comfortable, a sense of history; and with passing "traffic" who have some interest in military history. Unfortunately, the lighting makes for tricky photography  - the gallery-style spotlights create deep shadows on the tables, so the games held there are not as well documented as they ought to be.

More info about the museum can also be found on their Facebook page.

28mm South African Infantry: Italy 1944, Part 2

Regimental HQ carrier and HQ transport.

My painting has slowed down to crawl, but I eventually managed to get these off the workbench a few weeks back, and finally got a moment to photograph them earlier today.

They are some reinforcements for my South African 6th Armoured Division forces, representing some HQ elements and supports.

Primarily representing First City/Cape Town Highlanders in Italy 1944, with a smattering of attached troops from other units.
 

3" Mortar team. Could be either from the First City/Cape Town Highlanders support platoon, or an attached team from the Royal Durban Light Infantry.

HQ Bren Team - the attached rifle section "liberated" a Bren from one the regimental carriers to supplement their firepower.

The regiment's patrol specialists - Willem Schutte and Jim "Lefty" Hendriks. While briefed to spend their time "listening" for Tedesci movement and not engaging, both were known to use their 303's to good effect if they spotted a high-value target.

The staff. The two officers were painted a while back, but this is the first time they have been seen together with their staff sergeant, the regimental piper, and a runner

Signallers - a cable runner and a command radio/telephone operator.

NMC stretcher bearers/orderlies.

Sappers

Figures are from Artizan and Warlord. Piper is from the Warlord Commando character pack, with standard battledress legs from the plastic infantry, and greenstuff bonnet. The Native Military Contingent stretcher bearer is a Warlord figure with an Empress Zulu head, and medical orderly is a converted Artisan officer with greenstuff bag and Empress Zulu head (the Union Defence Force was racially segregated, and black troops could only serve in non-combatant roles).

Seen here with my Artillery HQ jeep for reference, the Morris 15cwt I built to add flavour to the force. I am not sure if the 6th Division still used Morris trucks in Italy (have seen one pic of a Morris radio truck but nothing besides that) but the wonderful little Company B kit is too neat to not include as a light transport.

The HQ carrier is the standard Warlord Mk2 kit with radio, antenna, toolbox and stowage added. Seen here with a First City/Cape Town Highlanders carrier platoon vehicle.

Battlefields: Blaauwberg, 1806

Not more than 25 kilometers from central Cape Town is a battle site that has been so successfully forgotten and obscured, that few local residents (even those living on its fringes) know anything about it, despite it counting as one of the most significant and interesting battles in our nation's history: Blaauwberg, January 8, 1806.

In an attempt to invade and wrest control the Cape of Good Hope - then a strategic port on the lucrative trade route to India - from the French-allied Batavian Republic, British warships landed of force of 3000 regulars - including an elite Highlander Brigade - under the command of veteran Lt General Sir David Baird. They faced a mixed force of locally-raised militia dragoons, jaegers and artillery, Batavian and Waldeck regulars and French sailors led by the Governor of the Cape, Lt General Janssens.

Taking advantage of the difficulties of defending the long coastline, the British landed almost unopposed, but were then met on the slopes below Blaauwberg hill by the more mobile Batavian "reaction force".

Janssens, outnumbered and commanding a mostly untested force, realised he would be very unlikely to defeat the British, but planned to inflict a blow on the invaders before retiring his force into the Hottentots Holland mountains, where he hoped to conduct a "guerilla-style" campaign against the British on ground suited to his mixed force, while waiting for French reinforcements.

However, his plans were dashed when the centre of his line - comprised of his trusted Waldeck regulars - buckled in the face of a charge by the Highland Brigade, and on the day a comprehensive victory was claimed by the British.

Compared to the grand battles happening in Europe at the time, it was not much of a set piece - no more than 5000 troops took the field, and casualties - missing, dead and wounded -  amounted to at most 600 (exact casualty figures are unknown and disputed). Excluding skirmishes occurring on the days before and after that battle, it was over in a matter of hours.

So why is it significant?

First, (and I have to thank local author and historian Willem Steenkamp for this perspective) it represents a turning point in the history of the region, as it marks the start of a period of aggressive British colonialism in South Africa, fundamentally changing the course of our history.

And, (again, owing this insight to Steenkamp) it involved prototypes of the definitive soldier  of South African history - the mounted rifleman.

And why is it interesting, and especially interesting to wargamers?

First, it is the only Napoleonic battle in the region, and the only battle in our country's history where both sides used the European-style military tactics of the time in a symmetrical battle.

Second, it involved a range of units unique to the Cape, all with distinct uniforms - the Javanese Foot Artillery Corps (which despite their name were locally raised), the Burgher militia, the Hottentot Light Infantry, and the Kaapse Jaegers.

Third, the battle is so little known, and so little celebrated or commemorated, that its almost as if it was been deliberately erased from memory. No monuments mark the site of battle. Not a single grave is marked or recorded. Despite attempts in the 1950s (when the site was more open and less covered in vegetation) to find grave sites, none were found. Even the casualty records are incomplete - and even by the standards of the day remarkably sketchy. The exact position of the battle lines is still a mystery,  as we are reliant on rough contemporary sketch maps for our understanding of the encounter.

However, three locally-published histories of the battle are currently in print: Steenkamp's "Assegais, Drums & Dragoons" - Anderson's "Blue Berg", and Krynauw's "Beslissing by Blouberg". For more information see the reference gallery I have started.


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Conservation efforts

The Blaauwberg battle site has been threatened by the northward urban sprawl of the metropole's western seaboard suburbs. Thankfully, recently, the majority of the site has been incorporated into a reserve, the Blaauwberg Conservation Area. The BCA is focused on preserving both the natural heritage (the reserve includes almost-extinct Strandveld, West Coast Renosterveld and Sand Plain Fynbos) and the cultural heritage (as well as the battle site, pre-colonial Kwenna/Khoi middens and burial sites occur within the reserve).

However, there is currently no public access to the battle site, except in the form of overnight accommodation available in an old military installation near the top of Blaauwberg Hill which overlooks the site.

Recently, I was privileged to meet Roy Fuller-Gee of the Friends of the BCA, who is hopeful of the role local wargamers can play in re-introducing the battle to the general public. Roy has kindly offered to take members our wargaming club on a tour of the site. Publicity aside, he also sees a role for wargamers to help model the battle and gain insight into the potential locations of battle lines, which in turn might guide archeological teams who are beginning the huge task of surveying the site.  Its not often wargamers get asked to "give back" to community projects, and this is one that is so close to our interests and so close to our homes.

A website centred around the 200-year anniversary of the battle is to be found here and some images of the small re-enactment can be found here.  A short article by Willem Steenkamp in the South African Military History Journal is here. For what its worth, the Wiki article on Blaauwberg is here .

28mm South African Armour: Italy 1944

In my opinion, 28mm World War 2 gaming is, by definition, skirmish gaming. If you want to represent encounters with more than a platoon on the table, 20mm, 15mm or even 6mm are more suitable scales. And in the context of a skirmish game, a single armoured vehicle of any description is a big deal. A game changer. And a tank is a very big deal, and is sure to dominate the table.

So it was with some hesitation that I started painting up armour to support my Springbok footsloggers. I began with lightly armoured vehicles (an armoured car, and a universal carrier) thinking that they could open up some scenario options without having too much of a negative impact on the game. Since then I have really enjoyed the modelling aspect of building the armour, and have (very) slowly been adding vehicles to my South African force.

My plan is to build a selection of the vehicles used by the South African 6th Armoured Division in Italy in 1944 and 1945. I dont want to field any coherent or complete unit, but to have representative vehicles to use as scenarios demand.

The SA 6th landed in Taranto, Italy in April 1944 (first entering the line at Monte Cassino) and fought northwards until the end of the war. The "Tunisian" pattern of Light Mud and Blue Black was only used until September in 1944, when the entire division was rested and refitted and all vehicles took on the British Olive Drab equivalent.

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Divisional Artillery HQ: Humber Scout car

These were mostly used as HQ transport pool vehicles, and few of them acquired the clutter and baggage that you see of vehicles "lived in"by their crew. This is a Warlord Games kit built pretty much "out of the box", apart from the addition of limited baggage and aerials. I used Dom's Decals for the AoS and Bridging marks, and for the WD serial numbers.

Universal Carrier: First/City Cape Town Highlanders Carrier Platoon

Pix show that the FC/CTH carrier platoon jeep was named "Prince Charming", and the eight carriers were named after "Snow White" and each of the seven dwarves. This example is "Bashfull". The Warlord kit is of the Mk2 carrier, but the South Africans used Mk1s, so in time I will replace this with a Mk1 from Die Waffenkamer, or the new Perry/Blitzkrieg Miniatures kit. Added the toolbox and stowage rack. Casual crew member having a smoke ("Sarge told Collins to put on his helmet, and damned if he didnt ignore Sarge and cop some Ted shrapnel later that same day...") is a slightly converted Warlord figure.  Decals are a mix of 1/56 from Dom's Decals and the 1/72th set from William Marshall/Starmers Armour. (The jeep pictured below is another Artillery HQ vehicle - from 22 Field regiment who operated Priests and Sextons.)

M3A3 Recce: Natal Mounted Rifles

Pix show that these seemed to be armed with a mix of .30 Brownings, .50 Brownings and 2" mortars. This is the absolutely excellent Company B kit - which includes options to build either the recce or the turreted version. Includes more than enough interior detail for a wargaming kit! Again, I added some stowage. Crew are a mashup of Warlord Brit Infantry plastics, and Warlord British tank crews.

 

 

 

 

Sherman V: OP Tank, 22 Field Regiment

Many iconic images of the Springbok Shermans during the Italian campaign are of the OP tanks: perched precariously on hillsides and ridgelines, directing fire of Priests and Sextons (and M10s firing in the field artillery role). The Appennines were no place for tank warfare, but the South Africans used them to support their infantry as closely as they possibly could. Another superb kit, this time from Warlord. I added the turret bin and stowage (and replaced the light cages with fusewire) but otherwise it is stock standard.